This is the Third Quarter 2008 edition of our ongoing hedge fund tracking series. Before reading this update, make sure you check out the preface to the series we're doing on Hedge Fund 13F's here.
Next up, we have John Paulson's Paulson & Co. Paulson & Co. is famous for making a fortune by betting against sub-prime when this whole mess began to unfold. And, it appears as if Paulson is still up to his fortune-making ways. One of his funds has generated a 589% return, which could easily be up there amongst the largest returns...
The average stock in the S&P 500 is down 18.49% since just last Tuesday. And nearly 40% (195 stocks) of stocks in the index have lost more than a fifth of their values since then. Currently, almost 20% of the index is made up of stocks trading for less than $10 per share, and 28 are trading less than $5 per share.
Below we highlight the 25 worst performing stocks since the election. As shown, General Growth Properties (GGP) is down the...
Standard & Poor's has been busy recently with changes to the composition of the S&P 500 Index. S&P noted in the case of General Growth Properties (GGP) that the company's market cap had declined to $128 million making it the smallest company by market cap in the S&P 500 Index. The changes occur after the close of trading on the date noted in the table.
I haven’t heard a lot of discussion about this, so I thought I would put my thoughts down on this blog, because to me the phenomenon is pretty obvious. There is some serious value out there right now, and for the last two months the market has been more inefficient than I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. Many stocks, especially small caps, are selling at valuations FAR below their intrinsic value, even after accounting for the possibility of severe and prolonged recession. I am convinced the reason for this is not fundamental, it is institutional.
Even though we're currently in one of the worst bear markets in history, only 9 of the 431 stocks in the S&P 500 trading above $10/share have consensus analyst price targets that are below their current prices. On the other hand, nearly 25% of the 431 stocks have price targets that are more than 50% above current prices.
Below we highlight S&P 500 stocks (>$10) that are currently the furthest below their price targets. As shown, Massey Energy (MEE) has a...
This entry will acknowledge Ashland's (ASH) comments Tuesday regarding the status of its merger with Hercules (HPC):
We have received all necessary regulatory approvals and continue to work with our banks on the structure and terms of the committed financing. The next milestone is the Hercules shareholder vote on the transaction at their Nov. 5 special meeting.
Ofheo warns of more GSE writedowns. Fannie (FNM) and Freddie (FRE) regulator Ofheo cautions the GSEs may be hit by more writedowns after they expanded their purchases of subprime and Alt-A mortgages even as other investors fled. The value of their $217B in 'non-agency' debt continues to fall as other firms write down their portfolios. "To the extent that [other] institutions recognize fair value losses on their private-label...
Saving Fannie and Freddie. Senior Bush officials are weighing a plan to takeover one or both of stressed mortgage financers Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM). Under the proposed conservatorship, shares would be worth little or nothing. Losses on the $5T of mortgages they own or guarantee - which could be staggering - would be picked up by always liquid taxpayers. Another option is to explicitly guarantee their debt - a move that would effectively double the size...
On April 28, The Wall Street Transcript interviewed Dmitry Silversteyn, a Senior Analyst with Longbow Research covering the chemicals industry. Key excerpts, including his sector picks, follow:
TWST: Where are you pointing investors at this point? What names are at the top of your list?
Stock News 
Hickey and Walters (
